Random blog posts about research in political communication, how people learn or don't learn from the media, why it all matters -- plus other stuff that interests me. It's my blog, after all. I can do what I want.

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

More Fun with Frosh Names

I wrote about this the other day, my analysis since 2008 of UGA freshman first names. Read it and enjoy. Today, let's look at the 2015 freshman class, it's first names, and do a little quick-and-dirty comparison.

For fun, I picked a likely birth year for freshman (1996) and looked at the Social Security's listing of popular baby names for that year, looking only from Georgia, to see how the UGA first names compare. Below, the Top 10 for that year, in Georgia.

Boy’s
Name

Girl’s
Name

1

Christopher

Ashley

2

Joshua

Hannah

3

William

Taylor

4

Michael

Jessica

5

Austin

Emily

6

James

Sarah

7

Jacob

Alexis

8

Brandon

Brittany

9

John

Madison

10

Matthew

Kayla

So at UGA, John is the most popular boy's name, but in the state of Georgia in 1996 (a rough guess as to the birth year), it was 9th. The next most popular boy's name for UGA is William. It's third on the Georgia 1996 list. Matthew is 10th at UGA, 10th in the state. So there's a decent correlation here. Among girl's names, the top UGA one has always been either Emily or Sarah. Emily is 5th in Georgia that year, Sarah 6th.

So let's flip the data. Christopher is the top boy's name in 1996. Where is it in the 2015 freshman class? Would you believe 32nd place? And Joshua, Georgia's #2? At UGA, 49th. With the girls names, it's kinda the same. In Georgia Ashley was tops in 1996, but at UGA it's only 24th. Hannah is a better fit. At UGA it's 4th, in Georgia that year it's 2nd.

The Special Case of Madison

Madison has never made UGA's top 10 until this year. Indeed, in 2008 it was in 235th place at UGA. But look at 1996. It's 9th in Georgia. That explains, I suppose, its move up. Madison was 22nd in 1995 in Georgia. So it's growing popularity helped it slip into the UGA top 10.